The recent winner of the inaugural Warwick prize for women in translation, Tawada’s story, translated by Susan Bernofsky, consists of three novellas, originally written in German. Each explores one generation of a real-life family tree, that of Knut, the polar bear born in a Berlin zoo in 2006 who, while his babyhood cuteness lasted, was adored by the world. The first portrays the life of Knut’s Russian-born grandmother, the second that of his mother, Tosca, a circus performer. The third is Knut’s own story of the powerful bond he formed with his keeper, only to be separated from him when the bear’s size and power began to pose a danger. In spite of links to the real histories of the three animals (particularly Knut, whose short life was obsessively recorded), these are dislocated and dreamlike fictions that disturb expectations: it’s not so much that the bears can interact with humans, read newspapers and, in the case of Knut’s grandmother, write an autobiography, but that these magical scenarios do not add up to a “world”; rather, we are never allowed to forget that these are the imaginings of a writer who can change direction on a whim. That process is the book’s deeper subject.

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